Republic Trooper (The Old Republic) - TVC - Basic (VC113)

Name: Republic Trooper (The Old Republic)Collection: The Vintage CollectionNumber: VC113Source: Expanded Universe (The Old Republic)Availability: October 2012License: Hasbro

Celebrate the legendary Star Wars saga that changed the universe forever! This collection brings to life the incredible story of good versus evil that captured our imagination and took us to a galaxy far, far away. Iconic Star Wars heroes and villains are captured with incredible detail and premium features to commemorate each epic tale in the Star Wars saga. May the Force be with you!

Jace Malcolm was introduced to Star Wars fans in The Old Republic trailers. But other than that, we only know what Wookieepedia tells us about him and his role in The Old Republic video game. What we do know conclusively instead is that Hasbro has crafted another great character based on this video game as an action figure in the very last wave of [the first phase of] The Vintage Collection. Released in a great group of varied Star Wars characters, the Republic Trooper (The Old Republic) is a tremendous effort by the sculptors at Hasbro. They faithfully recreated this character from the ground up and the action figure is all-new in every way. The figure isn't without its faults. For example, the deco isn’t perfect, but surprisingly not that important when gauged against other more important aspects. We feel that the Republic Trooper looks too clean and although his armor is nicely painted in alternating orange and dark gray color flashes, the bright white is too much and not accurate when compared against his appearance in the video game. Very clean looking armor is a dead giveaway that a trooper may be a little too green for battle. That has always been a setback with “clone type” characters and it's not too much different here sadly. Hasbro needs to find an affordable way to dirty up these types of characters. Besides looking a little too clean for his own good, that’s about where we stop finding fault with this very awesome action figure. Are you ready to learn more about him?!

Republic Trooper comes with 14 points of articulation. For the most part he comes with standard articulation, but Hasbro has added a ball-jointed torso which gives the figure a bit more versatility. It’s essential for this character to come with this point of articulation, so we’re especially thankful for that. Hasbro has generously added an incredible amount play value with this figure by adding seven individual parts. The figure comes with a removable helmet, a removable bandolier/shoulder armor combination piece, a removable ammo cartridge, removable sheath and knife, a blaster pistol and a heavy cannon. The sheath and the ammo cartridge attach to the figure with very thin plastic pins. However, they must be placed in their respective exact spots because their pin sizes are different lengths. But the included weapons are what add the incredible amount of interchangeability. You can really place the figure into a plethora of configurations. The heavy cannon he comes with is almost as tall as he is. As you can imagine, its awkward size makes it hard to to make him hold it without toppling to the ground, but with a little bit of patience and action figure virtue, you can make it work. The figure’s center of gravity couldn’t be better (except when holding the large heavy cannon).

Republic Trooper also has a stunning head sculpt. The size of the head looks a bit too small (it's about the size of a pea it seems), but perhaps more importantly than this detail is that his helmet isn’t oversized at all which has been problematic in The Vintage Collection on many figures, namely the phase II clone troopers. There is no issue of “bucket head” here in the least. That makes us particularly happy. We guess we have to trade one less than ideal situation for another. The Republic Trooper (The Old Republic) is part of a great way to send The Vintage Collection into hibernation; a great way to conclude this facet of the line. And collectors can be proud to own three brilliant characters based on The Old Republic video game. The Republic Trooper joins Darth Malgus (VC96) and Shae Vizla (The Old Republic Bounty Hunter) (VC101) as character from The Old Republic video game in The Vintage Collection. You should probably expect a few more characters get made from this visually stunning video game in the future. Also expect the Republic Trooper to be a highly sought after army building character. There is a reason why he looks this awesome and that creates even more demand then there should be. Thank goodness he come in every wave 16 case. Hopefully there will be enough to go around. Don't delay securing yours however. He's an Expanded Universe characters and that always means his value increases with time.